Seeking Support of Gay Voters, Dinkins Canvasses the Village

By JONATHAN P. HICKS

Published: August 24, 1993

In a day of campaigning that underscored his effort to win the support of gay New Yorkers, Mayor David N. Dinkins yesterday made several stops in Greenwich Village, where he picked up some endorsements and toured a clinic that cares for people with H.I.V.

While in the Village, Mr. Dinkins demonstrated again that a major weapon in his campaign strategy is to highlight the power of being Mayor.

He announced -- before a group of cheering children -- a $350,000 project to rebuild the baseball field at James J. Walker Park. Later he visited the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, an agency for which, earlier this year, he committed $1.5 million for building improvements. Off-the-Cuff Remarks

Mr. Dinkins, who is generally inclined to read his remarks in a dispassionate manner, spoke extemporaneously and with unusual passion about the sympathy he feels for people who are homosexual.

"Some people in our city, indeed in our nation, seem not to understand that the gay and lesbian community is as much a part of this country as anyone else," Mr. Dinkins said.

"I know something about discrimination," he added. "I've been discriminated against my whole life. I remember when I was told some years ago that 'you Negroes should not be too pushy' because they only lynched five last year."

The Mayor, who has been embroiled in controversy in the last week over the way his senior aides selected a company to handle the city's parking violations contract, was decidedly feisty, repeatedly criticizing his Republican-Liberal challenger, Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Indeed, the Mayor's barbs at Mr. Giuliani have become increasingly harsh. Although Mr. Dinkins yesterday paid particular attention to Mr. Giuliani's stand on issues of concern to gay voters, he also continued his portrayal of Mr. Giuliani as a politician reluctant to take a stand on most issues and inclined to alter the few stands he has taken.